Page 25

LIVIA

With trembling hands, I stared down at the dead wolf. Like I had with Elijah, I had shattered Soren’s spine in several places by stabbing him with a dagger and by… using that magic. Blood magic .

My gaze traveled around the room, the walls completely bare now.

All the blood had evaporated. There weren’t any glowing markings on the walls, nor a pool of blood at my feet. So much blood had been pulled through the walls that there had to be more somewhere.

Though… I didn’t know where it had come from.

Maybe those people in the underground chamber?

Tears welled up in my eyes. I hadn’t meant to kill anyone, but I’d had to kill Soren or else he would kill me. I had to look out for myself because I had gotten myself into this. And I had finally defeated our enemy for us.

So nobody in our pack should die again.

While I knew I would never be a luna, maybe this was as close as I could get to one by protecting my pack.

Heart thumping so loudly that I could hear it in my ears, I headed to the door. Howls drifted into my ears from a distance, and I knew that the Whispering Pines Pack would be coming to kill me soon.

I knew I’d be surrounded.

I didn’t know how to use my magic. I didn’t know how I even had magic. And I still couldn’t shift into my wolf. But I had to defend myself. I had to kill them all too. Then I would return to Caelan after this.

After grabbing the torch that lit the room, I headed back down the dark corridor to the witches’ cabin. Were those books about blood magic? Could I… be part blood mage? Was Mom a witch too? I’d had to return and retrieve the books after I dealt with the pack to get answers.

Fear bubbled in my stomach as I found myself at the door. I didn’t know how many wolves were out there waiting for me, but I opened the door anyway and stepped out into the daylight, eyes widening in sheer horror.

Hundreds of corpses from the Whispering Pines Pack decorated the living room, the kitchen, and even the forest around the cabin. The bodies were thin, stick thin , like they were skin and bones and nothing more.

I walked through the bodies, listening to howls in the distance. How were they all… dead? None of them had any open wounds. Yet it looked like all the blood had been drained from their bodies. Did I do that to them?

Maybe I had. Maybe that’s where all that blood had come from through the walls. They were all connected to Soren through blood. Was I powerful enough to kill hundreds of wolves just because… I touched their alpha’s blood?

My stomach twisted. I needed to learn how to control this. And quickly.

“Livia,” Caelan called through the forest, his voice almost broken. I had never heard him sound so desperate, so lonely. “Livia, please! Tell me you’re here. Tell me you’re alive!”

And then I saw him emerge from the trees. He stood across the field of bodies, his eyes wide and glowing gold. Before I could say a word, he was at my side, his arms around my waist, pulling me toward him.

“Don’t you ever fucking leave me again,” he said, burying his face into my neck. “Are you safe? Did they hurt you?”

“I…”

“Who killed the Whispering Pines Pack?”

I swallowed hard. “Don’t be mad at me… but I think I did.”

“You did this?” he asked me, pulling away slightly. “How?”

I opened and closed my mouth a handful of times, shaking my head. I didn’t know how. I wasn’t sure how to explain this. My body had sort of just reacted. And right now, the warmth was gathering inside me again.

The heat was building, and I just wanted to crawl out of my skin. Sweat began to form at the base of my neck, and suddenly a sheet covered my back. I shoved him away and dragged the back of my hand across my forehead.

I was hot… really, really hot.

And he never wanted to see me when I was in heat. He loathed it.

“Alpha…” I whispered, my breath harsh. “You should go.”

A low growl rumbled from his lips. “Livia, you’re going into heat.”

“I can’t stop it…” I whimpered. “Please, leave.”

“I’m not leaving you. Not again,” he said, stepping toward me.

The heat burned even hotter the closer he came. And my core… it was throbbing. I closed my eyes, desperate for him to touch me. It seemed like it was the only thing that I craved. I needed him to touch me. I needed his hands all over me. I needed him to mark me.

My entire body shivered, even though it felt like it was on fire.

The thought of his teeth deep in my neck?—

I let out a low breath, stared up at him. “Please, if you’re not going to mark me, then leave… then reject me. Because I… I need you to mark me. I need you to touch me everywhere. And I can’t handle it anymore.”

His eyes shifted from gold to brown, and suddenly his wolf wasn’t in control of his emotions anymore, which meant that there was a chance he would reject me. And if he rejected me, then maybe this heat would finally die.

Or… it’d kill me.

Instead of walking away, he continued closer until he was grabbing my waist and pulling me toward him again, our bodies flush against each other. I sucked in a sharp breath, his touch so cold yet warm at the same time.

My heart raced inside my chest. This wasn’t his wolf making a rash decision.

No, it was him.

“Please, I know that you don’t love me,” I said in one last desperate plea. “I know that we can never be mated. So please, please…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Alpha Caelan–my father’s best friend, the man twice my age, and my fated mate–sunk his canines into my neck and marked me. Finally claiming me as his own.